Numb Bum 24 Hour 2017

Photo Courtesy of Mike Elhard

Interview with Edmonton’s Mr. Motorsports Mike Elhard of MRRACING

Velocity: Congrats on the win. How many drivers did you have on your team?

Mike Elhard: Thanks Chris, We had 7 driver’s 1 team boss and a chef for the weekend. The Team of Drivers: Mike Elhard, Garrett Mealing, Shane Ganong, Greg Caldwell, Matt Haase, Eric Ambroszkiewicz, A.j. Vorginetz, Brandon Malo (Team Boss), Kelly Snell (Team Chef), and a few family members helping in various ways.

Velocity: How was the race?

Mike Elhard: We started off at noon on Saturday. Cycle Works West set us up with a 2017 Polaris RZR 1000xp in mostly stock trim with the only safety and lighting equipment added. We implemented our tried and true endurance formula tweaked and tested on the road courses of North America. This formula has proved successful with car racing and was easily adapted for Ice endurance racing.

The race started without a hitch on Saturday Feb 18 high noon. I took the first stint, a planned 90 min easy session and for the most part things when without a hitch. Our first incident happened on stint 3 when Eric Ambroszkiewicz made a small error that resulted in a light roll over. Rescue was dispatched and after a few min in the pits we quickly got back underway. Things went well for a couple more sessions until Matt Haase got called out on a hard to see hole in the ice causing a more serious rollover. The damage removed our upper light bar and this was a problem as the sun was setting fast. Another mad thrash in the pits got the broken light removed and the RZR back underway. Work on the broken light continued for the next 2 sessions. We finally, with the track side machining talents of Matt Haase reinstalled our light during a regular scheduled stop around 9pm. Into the night we run flat out. By now all other entries in the UTV class had blown up or quit so here we are driving on a 6km track in the dark by ourselves.

It was at this moment we needed a new goal. We were aware that this race would set a new world record. There has never been a 24 hour UTV race on ice before so any distance we accumulated would be the record distance for a 24hour UTV race on ice. We did some calculations and figured out that a goal of 1000 km was attainable. We pushed on through the night in conditions not fit for driving anything never mind an open cockpit RZR at race speed. The track had deteriorated too. It was a sloppy rutted and treacherous mix of holes standing water and certain trouble. We persevered through the night as crew and team led by our team Boss Brandon Malo (The only man who never sleeps).

Kelly Snell, our team Chef is defiantly another reason we have been so successful over the years in endurance racing. A well fed team is a happy team. This weekend while other teams were having burgers and dogs Kelly had prepared a roast for us as well as homemade soup, wings, vegies and squares. In the morning it was waffles and ham with eggs and all the trimmings.
After a long night of racing having the hot breakfast served in the race trailer is just what the doctor ordered.

At 6 am we knew the 1000 km goal was in our sights we kept pushing stint after stint until the final hours of the race 1 stint to go and bang no warning no signs our race would come to a anticlimactic end. A 20 dollar rear wheel bearing had exploded leaving the driver side rear wheel hanging on by the axel we limped it back to the pits to assess the damages. With roughly an hour to go and knowing parts were not available we opted to limp around over to the Start finish line. We waited until the checker flew and drove it across the line finishing the longest ever UTV ice race in the world. 970.4 km on the odometer a total of 908 km corrected distance minus wheel spin. We had done it Numb Bum Champions and New World record holders (pending the Guinness confirmation) The organizer said it was the roughest hardest track in the history of the event. Our Polaris RZR ran perfect never needing a belt or a drop of oil! I can’t say enough about our team. It was a near flawless execution of our plan.

Thanks again to all that made this happen.

Cycle Works West
12v Wizard
R&T Network Solutions
Our Team MRRACING
and Our families for the support

Photos Courtesy of Mike Elhard

Numb Bum 24 hr Ice Race Results 2017

Bike Pro Open
Finish Team Laps
1. #467 Ice Pirates108
2. #911 Half Fast Racing 103
3. #170 Team Shrinkage 35

Bike Novice
Finish Team Laps
1. #771 Fossil Fuelers 116 (*Most Laps Overall)
2. #47 RHMC 47 101
3. #666 Krazy Kupler Krew 98
4. #57 RHMC 57 Bike Novice 98
5. #171 Ice Holes 1 83
6. #308 Ice Holes 2 73
7. #1985 Blue 35

Quad Open
Finish Team Laps
1. #91 Numb Skulls 105
2. #723 ATV Revolution 104
3. #815 Ice Cheetahs 98
4. #54 Ice Screamers 75
5. #97 Dumb Bums Quad Open 64
6. #58 Battenfelder 44

Red Eye
Finish Team Laps
1. #66 Kickin Ass 53
2. #06 Blast Racing 45
3. #13 Outlaw Racing 45
4. #313 Bull Dog Red 44
5. #858 Go Hard Racing 42
6. #63 Danny Long Legs 37

UTV
Finish Team Laps
1. #17 Cycle Works 115
2. #511 ATV Canada 12
3. #1 Bad Habit 6

Pembina Dirt Riders Association
http://www.pdramx.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Pembina-Dirt-Riders-Association-home-of-the-NUMB-BUM-24-HOUR-ICE-RACE-399202143481899/

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